SKYVIEW LODGE – VACANCY

In 1944, before the end of World War II, before travel became The Travel Industry, Santa Fe, New Mexico’s only claim to fame was that of being the oldest state capitol in the USA. The influx of weekenders from Los Alamos less than an hour’s drive away may have been the forerunner for the tourist business that turned Santa Fe from a quiet adobe village into a high-priced highbrow mecca for the moneyed traveler, or hideout for Hollywood’s rich and famous. Now it’s advertised as “The City Different in the Land of Enchantment.”

I was nine, my brother a year and a half younger, when my single parent mother began to rent out rooms in the house we leased on Hillside Avenue. Our rented rooms were always full in the summertime. After the war ended people began traveling again, traveling by automobile since gasoline was no longer rationed. At that time Santa Fe had no motels, just a few old hotels downtown, and little parking on the narrow streets.

Our success in renting rooms in our home led my mother to buy a two-story adobe building with ample parking on Cerrillos Road – the main thoroughfare from Albuquerque in those days. After a few renovations we moved to Skyview Lodge which became a “motel” offering two efficiency apartments around the back (one with a double bed, the other with two). In the front off a large entrance hall there was a tiny room with a single bed, another two rooms with a double bed apiece and a shared bathroom up the stairs. My mother’s bedroom was behind the front desk, and upstairs, also sharing the shared bath were another four rooms of various sizes.

My brother and I got the smallest bedrooms in the place in the summertime, and during the busiest weekends even those got rented out. He and I would sleep in the tiny lath house outside the kitchen door, or in bedrolls on the roof (flat and tarpaper-covered). In the wintertime we each got our pick of any bedroom in the place.

Those summers we usually rented out at least ten beds every night. I remember this because every day during the tourist season after the guests had gone it was my job to strip twenty sheets and pillowcases off the beds. I dragged them along with the used towels downstairs to the kitchen where our Maytag washing machine waited for the first load of the day. The machine kept going all morning as I loaded sheets and towels into the washer to agitate, and then, dripping wet, into the separate spin compartment, and finally into the wicker laundry basket. I carried the basket, heavy with wet laundry, into the backyard where I hung them neatly over the parallel rows of clotheslines securing them with wooden clothespins.

After half a dozen loads were flapping in the wind to dry my brother and I would walk down to the corner soda fountain – a limeade for me and a chocolate milkshake for him. Then back to work. Within an hour the sheets had been whipped dry by the wind and smelled of sunshine (with a faint whiff of adobe dust). The sheets usually came off the line as the fluffy white clouds popped up over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains promising a refreshing half hour thunderstorm later that afternoon.
Once or twice each summer the rain came before all the sheets were completely dry and some of them had to be returned to the beds slightly damp as we only had one set of sheets for each bed. It seldom rained at night, but when it did it was my job to knock on the doors of two of the upstairs rooms and apologize to the guests as I physically moved the beds to place cooking pots under the known leaks.

Each afternoon my mother and I made the ten beds together – tucking the pillows under our chins to slide the pillowcases on. My mother usually did some cleaning in the morning and either my brother or me ran the Electrolux vacuum cleaner hauling the awkward machine up or downstairs daily. My brother emptied the wastebaskets while my mother and I folded the fresh towels to stack neatly on the foot of each bed. By four pm when travelers began looking for a place for the night we were ready to flip on the neon sign that announced Skyview Lodge – Vacancy.

Mother showed the first rooms – often renting some, but she usually went to bed around eight pm. Although I was only eleven years old that first year, I attended to the desk in the evening, showed the last few rooms, quoted a price (between $1 and $4) per night, made change, registered them, and hopefully before midnight could turn on the red neon “No” which informed late travelers that we were full. The following morning my mother was often astonished to find out how much money I had charged for the less desirable rooms. “It was late and ours were the last rooms in town,” I’d explain – having obviously grasped the concept of what-the-traffic-will-bear long before I’d heard the term.

My brother and I got a dollar or two each week as allowance for our help. Once a month I got an extra fifty cents for waxing the spacious hardwood entry hall with Johnson’s paste wax. I was supposed to buff it by hand but preferred to do it by foot as it was fun to skate around in my stocking feet until the entry hall gleamed.

Within five years the classic motel business was thriving and Cerrillos road became motel row with King’s Rest, Desert Chateau, Cactus Lodge, and their ilk offering private cabins with carports. Our spartan rooms with shared bath “up the stairs” couldn’t compete. Then my mother got pregnant and remarried when I was almost sixteen, and I stayed on for a short time at Skyview Lodge renting a few rooms each night and doing the laundry each day until school started and I moved in with an aunt.

Skyview Lodge eventually was sold, and became a youth hostel for many years.

After I married and had children our family either slept in the back of our station wagon or in a big canvas tent when we traveled.

Then came the day on a business trip to California when I decided to rent a room for the night instead of driving straight through. So strange to be paying money out instead of taking it in! And the price, even at the budget motels, gave me a stomach ache. I never did get used to paying for a place to sleep at night. The legacy of having grown up on the other side of the desk in the travel industry!

ANATOMY OF AN ESSAY


I’m peacefully driving along the street and am suddenly attacked by the title for an essay. At the next stoplight I scribble it down on the stack of scratch paper on the passenger seat. Percolation begins -- subconscious in charge.

I finish driving to the swimming pool. As I dog-paddle back and forth in the lap lanes, related words and phrases bubble up into my consciousness. My fraying memory puts in for battle pay. I resort to a variety of tired mnemonic devices to help me hang onto whatever bits I can until I finish my swim. Finally, back in the car, I jot down the word salad as best I can. I drive to the grocery store and then home. I pull into my parking place and collect my notes to carry upstairs.

Once inside the door, I turn on the computer, open up Microsoft Word, and, using the hunt-and-peck system, begin to keyboard the notes, often finding them completely illegible. I save the keyboarded notes, hang up my swimsuit, and put my groceries away. All of a sudden I seem to be brain dead, so I close down Word. I tell myself I’ll work on the writing after lunch.

Life gets in the way. Three days later, writing class is galloping toward me. I do not know what happened to the week. It doesn’t matter as the deadline demands action. I encourage myself to sit down at the computer and open up Word and the saved essay notes.

I sit there and reread what I already have. It’s anemic, inadequate, lackluster at best. Whatever made me think this topic was substantial enough for even a lightweight essay? But, over the years I’ve learned that writing is more about the willingness to continue to engage with the material than it is about inspiration. So, I sit there and sit there and sit there.

Eventually I eke out a paragraph, or two, or three. I surprise myself with a cogent thought, or two, or three. I keep at it until it begins to approximate the idea I started out with. Maybe this will work after all.

I cut words and phrases. I look to make sure I have as many action verbs and precise nouns as possible. I remind myself to narrow the focus, be specific, and find places to use dialogue. I add examples and anecdotes. I look up dog-paddling in the dictionary; is it one word or two? Is it hyphenated or not? Back to the dictionary; does mnemonic mean what I think it means? How the hell do you pronounce it, anyway?

I finally reach the point where it’s not necessarily good, but good-enough. I print out copies, and drag the essay, freshly killed, to class.

Listen up, now!

WANDERLUSTING


This time of year a plague of symptoms assails me: itchy feet; compulsive daydreaming; restless nights. I’m obviously spring feverish, drunk on sunshine (or the lack of it), longing for a road trip. Just call me wander-woman, a kindred spirit to the legendary rambling-man. Wander-woman wanderlusting.

I wax nostalgic for the days I lived in a vehicle and could leave town when things didn’t suit me. For over seven years I lived in a 19-foot Itasca Spirit designed for weekend outings -- not for fulltime living. I slept in a bunk over the driver’s cab, and there was no room for nocturnal pacing much less room to swing a cat even if I had had one. (Not that I would actually do such a thing!) There was, however, a decent kitchen including oven, and a full-service bathroom on board.

Then my former mother-in-law offered me an older 21-foot motorhome with an actual double bed in the back, and much more suitable for a full-timer. So, I sold my Itasca Spirit and, for another five years, continued to travel around the country in more comfortable style.

I thought of myself as technically homeless, my address just a post office box. I stayed overnight in RV parks, state parks, and the friendly driveways of friends, friends of friends, and various aunts, uncles, and cousins. I also visited my two brothers from time to time. When in the Seattle area I parked in what my oldest daughter-in-law called “the mother-in-law driveway.”

I spent twelve years wandering these United States, mostly in the west, writing and teaching adult education workshops during my travels. I earned a marginal living between workshop fees and book royalties, and it was a satisfying life. Some people felt sorry for me, but I loved my gypsy lifestyle.

Then my books went out of print, my motorhome needed more and more repairs, and the price of gas kept climbing. A serious problem since the motorhome only got five or six miles per gallon at best. So I was content to move into senior housing, but every spring I hear the call of the open road. I remember with pleasure the faint odor of skunk roadkill, the postcard glimpses of the ever-changing landscape, the adventure of the challenges of everyday life.

On the other hand, these days I can hardly afford the gas for my ten-mile daily roundtrip to the swimming pool; traffic has gotten worse by the year; and I’m better at being an armchair traveler. My travels to the library to get books on true adventure feed my gypsy soul, and quiet my wanderlust.

Almost!

TWEET ME NOT


I’m no technophobe, but please don’t tweet me, text me, or “friend” me. As far as I’m concerned those are all forms of cyber-bullying. I love my computer (that I mostly use as a fancy typewriter), am content with my basic e-mail, and obsessed with the occasional computer game, but I only have a dial-up connection to the internet.

The tweets of Twitter do not intrigue me. I do like epigrams, and the challenge of reducing one’s message to 127 characters has some appeal, but I suspect few tweets attain epigram status. Texting with its arcane abbreviations and acronyms just seems juvenile at best.

Facebook and its kin are mysteries I’m not interested in solving. I don’t need friends that badly. I ignore those requests that purport to be from friends or relatives. The one request I did respond to in a cursory way resulted in my e-mail mail list getting compromised.

I tried to set up a web page for myself, but even the sites that claimed to be user-friendly, quickly attained enemy status in my hands. I had to settle for doing an idiot-proof blog that lacks the bells and whistles of the web page I originally sought.

Computers, smart phones, and their apps have taken over the known universe. Google is now a verb, and, despite the recession, sales of I-phones, Kindles, and their ilk prosper. Newspapers are shrinking both in number, and in their physical dimensions. Libraries are short on actual books, and long on audio books, DVDs, computers, and e-books. I’m conflicted because, despite my antipathy for tech talk, I do love Google.

I’m beginning to think that the issue for me is not just the pervasiveness of technology in my life, but the change it demands from me, and, worst of all, the rapidity of that change. Just as I think I’ve got some computer thing mastered they change the format, the protocol, or the password. I’m often asked by my computer, or whatever is dictating terms, to authorize “updates.” I don’t want updates. I want down-dates; I want boring dates; I just want things the way they used to be.

Nevertheless, although I think movement for movement’s sake is what passes for some tech progress these days, the tsunami of change has already wreaked its havoc, and now some of us have to pick up the few pieces we understand and get used to it.

Until I do that, please do not tweet me, text me, or friend me. I’m not feeling all that friendly these days anyway.

THE APRIL FOOL CHICKEN


One spring morning I walked into our suburban house just as Richard, my seventeen-year-old son, dashed past me out the door. “Where are you going?” I hollered.

“Gotta pick up my chicken,” he said, saying something about a friend who had a bantam rooster needing a good home. He revved up his ’56 Chevy and screeched out of the driveway.

“Oh sure,” I muttered, reminding myself that it was April first -- April Fool’s Day. I thought no more about it until the middle of the night when I heard this terrible noise outside my window. The middle of the night turned out to be pre-dawn -- four AM. The terrible noise turned out to be the promised chicken.

At breakfast I turned my bleary eyes on Richard and said, “Why?” pointing toward the sliding glass door to the patio where the colorful rooster could be seen strutting around as if he owned the place.

Richard met my gaze. “You know I’ve always wanted a chicken,” he said, as if it was something that all teenage boys wanted.

“I have never heard you mention this before,” I protested, trying to ignore the fierce stare of the beady-eyed rooster outside

A few months later Richard graduated from high school and moved into a tiny apartment with his buddy Mark. Guess who got temporary custody of the April fool chicken!

That evil-eyed rooster continued to wake me up in the middle of the night. Richard continued to promise that he was looking for another “good home” for the chicken. That chicken continued to terrorize all of the neighborhood cats and dogs that dared to approach our backyard for the next year and a half.

I finally sold the house and moved into a small apartment. The April fool chicken moved across the back fence into the yard of a neighbor who had grown fond of it.

I’d been looking forward to a different kind of alarm clock – one I could actually set and control. The first night in my new apartment I suddenly woke to a strange noise. I looked over at the clock. Four a.m. The strange noise was silence. Even stranger was the fact that I found I sort of missed that feisty April fool chicken.